Chicago, IL

A lively art studio transformed from a previously vacant, three-acre lot into a wonderful cultural resource and an educational tool for youth around Chicago.

The Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner, Lois Weisberg, and Chicago First Lady, Maggie Daley, founded Gallery 37 in 1991 to revive Block 37 in the heart of Chicago's Loop. Their concept has transformed the vacant 3-acre lot into a lively art studio that employs youth to study and create art each summer. This outdoor gallery offers free art classes and workshops to the public. Since its inception, the program has grown to include satellite programs in nearly thirty Chicago neighborhoods, including one in the Chicago Cultural Center. In addition, after-school adaptations of the original summer plan have spread to more than thirty Chicago public high schools.

Nuts and Bolts:

• Gallery 37 provides carefully selected young people, all between ages fourteen to twenty-one, with on-the-job training in the visual, literary, media, and performing arts regardless of gender, race, or family income level.
• These students, called "apprentice artists," earn minimum wage while working part-time with professional "lead artists" in the creation and sale of art.
• The mediums include architecture, mural painting, ceramics, woodcarving, African dance, writing, and decorative furniture painting. Seventy-five percent of youth participants are from economically disadvantaged families. Seventy percent attend Chicago public schools.
• Eighty percent are from African-American, Latino, Native American, or Asian/Pacific Islander communities.
• Recommended participants must undergo an application process, interview, and juried evaluation. Apprentice artists are chosen for their enthusiasm for the arts, artistic talent,and ability to commit for the duration of the project. While fewer than half who apply are accepted, the city-wide program employs over 3,000 youth annually.
• Weisberg and the Gallery 37 Committee select local arts education agencies, ranging from major institutions such as The School of the Art Institute to local community based operations, to participate as Gallery 37 Teaching Organizations. These Teaching Organizations receive project grants between $8,000 and $ 15,000 for curriculum development, instructor salaries, and instructional supplies.
• Lead artists then pair with Teaching Organizations to create a specific curriculum. Artists must have professional exhibition and teaching experience.
• Emerging artists are also employed as teaching assistants at all Gallery 37 locations. Thus far, twenty-nine city agencies and thirty nine local arts organizations, universities, and community organizations have participated in the project; Gallery 37 employs more than 400 lead artists each year.

Successes:

• Youth participation in Gallery 37 leads to a heightened sense of cultural identity, enhanced self-esteem, and a newfound understanding that artistic and social skills gained through involvement may result in future employment opportunities.
• Not only does the program provide participants with positive reinforcement, mentoring support, and a greater sense of self-worth, it also teaches skills such as problem-solving, decision-making, and interpersonal relations, essential skills in any work environment.
• A 1993 survey of participants indicated that eighty percent rated the program successful in developing artistic talent. Eighty-eight percent said they would work at Gallery 37 again.
• In 1991, 260 students were employed. In 1998, over 3,000 youth were hired.
• This project has been replicated in sixteen U.S. cities; London, England; Birmingham, England; and Adelaide, Australia.
• Gallery 37 has also earned several awards including: the First Place City Livability Award given to Chicago in 1994 by the United States Conference of Mayors; being named an international model at the 1992 Educating Cities Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden; and recognition in 1997 as one of the Top Ten Innovations in American Government by the Ford Foundation and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government in partnership with the Council for Excellence in Government.

Keys to Success:

• This program involved the coordination of numerous city agencies, arts education institutions, and professional artists.
• The program's administrators employ the talents of professional arts educators in curriculum development and design.
• In the Boston Globe, Pat Matsumoto, assistant commissioner for the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, compared the Gallery 37 project to Works Progress Administration programs, which provided work for artists during the Depression era. "The concept of Gallery 37 was two-fold," she said. "One was to reinstate the value of learning the arts and the second is to pay artists to learn job skills."

How can you do it?

• Due to overwhelming domestic and international interest, a How-To-Replicate manual and video were also created with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ford Foundation, and the Graham Foundation. Click here for information on how to receive a copy.

For more information on this program: Gallery 37